NASA Kepler Mission Update
New findings from NASA's Kepler mission were presented at the 218th American Astronomical Society meeting.
Kepler-10c and a New Method to Validate Planets
Today the Kepler team is announcing another member of the Kepler-10 family, called Kepler-10c (larger foreground object in the image on this page). It has a radius of 2.2 times that of Earth's, and it orbits the star every 45 days. Both Kepler-10b and 10c would be blistering hot worlds.
Kepler’s Astounding Haul of Multiple Planet Systems
Cambridge, MA — NASA’s Kepler spacecraft is proving itself to be a prolific planet hunter. Within just the first four months of data, astronomers have found evidence for more than 1,200 planetary candidates. Of those, 408 reside in systems containing two or more planets, and most of those look very different than our solar system.
- Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Press Release 2011-14 of May 23, 2011
For more, visit: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2011/pr201114.html
How to Learn a Star’s True Age
Cambridge, MA — For many movie stars, their age is a well-kept secret. In space, the same is true of the actual stars. Like our Sun, most stars look almost the same for most of their lives. So how can we tell if a star is one billion or 10 billion years old? Astronomers may have found a solution – measuring the star’s spin.
- Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Press Release 2011-15 of May 23, 2011.
For more, visit: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2011/pr201115.html
Kepler Mission Progress: Day 808 Presentations
- William Borucki, Principal Investigator, Kepler Mission, NASA Ames Research Center, PowerPoint, 3.8 MB
- Dave Latham, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, PowerPoint, 1.2 MB
- Francois Fressin, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, PowerPoint, 7.3 MB
- Geoff Marcy, University of California, Berkeley, PowerPoint, 4.5 MB
- Søren Meibom, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, PDF 13.3 MB
Archive of the entire Press Conference may be found on Archived AAS Press-Conference Webcasts. It is a Flash file, over 200 Mb. To view it, visit: http://aas.org/press/archived_press_conferences
Provided by NASA
